What the Bear is Watching

There seems to be a lull in the TV action which is fine by me. It gives me a chance to catch up on missed opportunities.

"Westworld" - HBO - I wrote about this show in my post 2 months ago and I'm sad to say that my initial feelings about the show going downhill have been confirmed. I think the show has jumped the shark after only 2 seasons. By the finale I was praying for everyone to just die and get it over with. Of course it's HBO's new franchise, so most characters survived or at least their cyborg selves or their memories in the giant cloud. It's to the point where even the title "Westworld" is meaningless. On a sidenote we watched the movie "The King and I" over the weekend and was surprised to have learned that it was one of Yul Brynner's first movies. Right before it he played pharaoh in "The Ten Commandments" and some small role before that. He did a bunch of little stuff afterward but then hit it big again playing a cowboy in "The Magnificent Seven." His career seemed to languish after that, but then he hit it big one last time playing the maniacal robot gunslinger in the movie "Westworld." I guess it's also interesting that the plot revolves around guests at a theme park being attacked by robots. Exchange dinosaurs for robots and you essentially have "Jurassic Park." Funny. Both books were written by Michael Chrichton.

"Succession" - HBO - The show got a good review in the WSJ probably because it deals with the filthy rich. A Rupert Murdoch-like father seems to be unfit for command, so his family duels to see who will take over the company. We are really enjoying this show. The family is somewhere between pathetic and despicable. There are all sorts of personalities involved which are thrown together wonderfully. The last episode we saw was actually filmed in New Mexico as the family tries to reconcile their differences at the desert estate of one brother who is kind of a hippie at heart (played by Ferris Bueller's friend Cameron). One brother is a recovering drug addict and discovers our wonderful meth scene. I guess NM is now forever known as the meth capital of the country.

I'm still digging "Peaky Blinders" on Netflix. I only have a few more episode to go. The show started off with a guest appearance by Sam Neill (back to "Jurassic Park!") and this season has Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody. I'm both happy and bummed to see that there will be a season 5. I'm happy that the show will continue, but it's sort of a major spoiler alert to know that probably none of the major characters will be killed off in the remaining few episode I have to watch.